Jim Donaldson: Patriots tap football factory that is Rutgers

Just wondering, since the Patriots’ 2013 draft strategy seemed to be: if there’s a defensive back available from the State University of New Jersey, we’ll take him.

The state of the New England secondary being what it is — the Pats have given up more passing yards than any team in the AFC over the last two seasons — you have to figure that almost anybody can help.

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But it’s a little surprising that the Patriots have helped themselves to three DBs from Rutgers, of the not exactly powerful Big East football conference, over the last four drafts, selecting two in the third round Friday night to join fellow alum Devin McCourty, the Pats’ first-round pick in 2010.

The hope, of course, is that cornerback Logan Ryan and unheralded safety Duron Harmon will be at least as good as McCourty, who was drafted as a cornerback but has since been converted to safety, where he’s been solid, though hardly spectacular.

The Pats are also hoping that second-round pick Aaron Dobson will be better — make that much better — than the wide receivers on whom they’ve expended high picks in the recent past.

The Pats wound up without a first-round pick this year, having traded down from the 29th spot in the draft in a swindle of a deal with the Vikings, who liked wide receiver Cordarrelle Patterson so much that they surprisingly parted with second-, third-, fourth- and seventh-round picks to move up to get him.

So the Patriots didn’t have a selection until the 52nd spot overall, when they chose an exceptional athlete in Jamie Collins, who played defensive end last season at winless (0-12) Southern Mississippi, but will be a linebacker in New England, where his primary contributions as a rookie will probably come as a pass rusher and on special teams.

Whether he becomes an exceptional football player remains to be seen.

As is the case with every player in every draft.

You just never know.

In the Bill Belichick era, we have seen the Patriots use their top pick on the likes of Adrian Klemm, Laurence Maroney, Brandon Meriweather and Patrick Chung (Chung and Klemm, like Collins and Dobson, were second-rounders) and later picks on the likes of Tom Brady (sixth round, 2000), Aaron Hernandez (fourth round, 2010), Julian Edelman (seventh round, 2009) and David Givens (seventh round, 2002).

So who’s to say whether New England’s draft harvest of 2013 will turn out to be a bumper crop or a bust?

The answer won’t come for at least a couple of years.

But, based on first impressions, this year’s draft seems more like 2009 than 2010.

In the former, the Pats had four picks in the second round and two in the third, having traded out (sound familiar?) of the first round, and wound up with Chung, Ron Brace, Darius Butler, Sebastian Vollmer, Tyrone McKenzie and Tate.

Of those six, only Vollmer, who starts at right tackle, is still on the team four years later.

In 2010, however, the Patriots picked McCourty, Rob Gronkowski, Jermaine Cunningham, Brandon Spikes, the aforementioned Price and Hernandez, along with Zoltan Mesko in the first five rounds — a pretty darn good haul, overall.

If the 2013 draft turns out that well, it will be grand.

Also surprising.

The best of this year’s bunch appears to be Collins, a 6-foot-3, 250-pounder who topped all linebackers at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis in both the standing broad jump (11 feet, 7 inches) and the vertical leap (41-1/2 inches.) He had the second-best time in the 60-yard shuttle run and ran the 40 in 4.64 seconds.

But, as we all know, he won’t be competing in any track meets in Foxboro.

Fortunately, the guy is an “ath-a-lete,” as the football folks like to say, who also is a productive player, as his 10 sacks, four forced fumbles, and five passes defensed last season for the woeful Golden Eagles attest.

It can be demoralizing to play on a team that never wins a game, but Collins never stopped trying.

“It was adversity,” he acknowledged. “It was also motivation. I felt I had to play even harder, because we were losing.”

He’ll do a lot more winning than losing in New England, where Collins says he intends to “play (his) heart out.”

Dobson’s stats at Marshall (alma mater of Randy Moss and Troy Brown) weren’t exactly heart-stopping. He had just three touchdown catches last season among his 57 receptions, on which he averaged 11.9 yards.

“He’s big, he’s fast, he’s got good hands,” Belichick. “He’s a strong player, smart — very smart. He has some position flexibility and versatility. Catches the ball very well. We’ll see how it goes.”

Hopefully, it will go better than it went with Price and Tate, Jackson and Johnson.

As for those Rutgers DBs: “That was a very good defensive unit that they had last year — over the past few years actually, but especially last year,” Belichick said.

“Logan [Ryan] had a very productive year outside and Duron [Harmon] inside. I know that whole group, but especially those guys, are close. They communicated well, played well. Both were very productive, both defensively and in the kicking game — solid guys. We’ve had a number of our players here comment on their personal characteristics, so I think we’re getting some high-quality guys there as well as good football players.

“I think,” said Belichick, “we were able to improve our team with the players we selected.”

That’s always the plan.

Of course, plans sometimes go awry. Other times, they work out perfectly.

“We’ll see how it all comes together, how it all works out,” Belichick said.